Extract dark comb?

[glenn c hile]

Queen got up into some honey supers so I have several frames that have 50% combs that were used for brood at sometime in the season.  Do I go ahead and extract those or save them for brood next year?  Honey looks and tastes fine.  What is the general opinion?

[harvey]

I would definately extract and eat the honey!  Once you strain it, it will be fine!

[AllenF]

I extracted 2 supers last week that had brood comb once, just really tough wax. 

[RayMarler]

Yea, it makes the wax tougher so it's easier to extract, but it won't change the honey.  Extract and enjoy!

[Kathyp]

extract! i have gotten some outstanding honey from nasty looking comb.

[JP]

extract! i have gotten some outstanding honey from nasty looking comb.

So nasty its good!  :-D


...JP

[Kathyp]

oh darlin....you know it can be!

should have added that you want to filter it pretty well.  as i recall i ran mine through a couple of layers of cheese cloth.

[glenn c hile]

Thanks that's what I had been doing. 

Another question, relegate these to brood comb replacement next year or back in the honey supers?  Without using a queen excluder I think I will end up with a lot of brood comb!

Another observation.  I put some foundationless in between frames with foundation for some comb to cut and it seems that the queen preferred using the foundationless over the plastic. 

[Kathyp]

i just extracted from 8 supers and had no brood in any of them.  i did not super until the deeps had a band of honey over the top of the brood.  i think that made all the difference.  you can cut out the brood comb and let the bees repair it next year unless you just want to start over with new foundation.  if those frames are the same size as your brood chamber frames, just swap them next year with some frames from below that were not used for brood.